Chapter 49: Kagami's Heart Arc - On Lakeshore Avenue
This is the longest flashback that I have ever written...oh God. However, as you can see, only part of the chapter is a flashback. Still, it's supposed to be a very sad chapter that will reveal a whole bunch of Kagami's past as Kage. Prepare your tissues if you are prone to stuff like this, readers.
If you were wondering who the last POV was in the chapter, when Tobi announced that Kagami was missing, it was in Kaiya's POV for a brief time. Sorry for any confusion.
Disclaimer: I own nothing, aside from my OCs and the storyline. I do, however, also own the laptop that I'm typing this on.
Warning: Gun violence and homicide, even though it's in flashback. Viewer discretion is advised.
Kaiya flipped out of her bed, speeding out of the room as if somebody had set her clothes on fire. She wasn't screaming, but I could detect the huge storm of panic and worry that had clouded her gaze and filled her gray irises to the brim.
I had probably forgotten to warn her that the feeling inside of my own eyes would be contagious, but it was already too late. Two loud shouts came from the other end of the hall, telling me that Kaiya had just delivered the news to Deidara and Naoki. Sasori, of course, never shouted that loud, so if he had displayed worry, I couldn't see it.
Don't ask me why I was so worried about the situation, but then again, anything that involved Kagami and danger involved me as well. After all, there was that bracelet that she had given to me for Christmas to symbolize our friendship.
Beside me, Nagato and Konan began to wake up, their eyes widening as they began to comprehend the current situation and why everybody seemed to be running all over the hallway, opening and closing doors around a hundred times a minute.
Not really wanting to stand there and look suspicious, I ran off into the hallway as well, but instead of dashing down the flight of stairs like nearly everybody else, I raced back into Kagami's room.
I already knew that she wasn't there, since I had looked by literally flipping her sleeping bag upside down. However, remembering that Kagami had a diary, I thought that she would have written how she had been feeling just before she had left the room. Had only I had slept in the room instead of hiding in the kitchen and sleeping away from her, I probably could have prevented what had happened.
And judging by everybody's frantic shuffling and shouts coming from downstairs, I quickly determined that she wasn't even in the house anymore.
Making my way around the various stuffed animals that she had kept lying on the floor, I nearly stumbled over Shiroyuki, the stuffed white rabbit that I had gotten her at the first amusement park. It looked almost exactly like her other rabbit, Usagi, but I could tell that Shiroyuki was bigger. In addition, Usagi wasn't there either, and I quickly determined that Kagami had taken the rabbit with her.
I knew one reason why she had taken Usagi with her and not Shiroyuki, both of which she had become equally attached to. Shiroyuki was a gift from me, and Kagami probably didn't want to think about me. After all, she had been greatly traumatized by what had gone down in the dark alleyway.
We had been pretty upset at each other, though it took me by surprise because that was the first time that I had ever seen Kagami that angry, or angry at all. She had even said that she hated me, which was definitely her equivalent of saying a bad word or committing a crime.
Even though I could tell that she was much more mature and wiser than pretty much all other seven-year-olds, even Kagami had a breaking point. Witnessing me murder somebody was enough to do that.
At first, I had felt nothing for the man that I had killed to save her life, especially since she had been kidnapped right in front of me while the sun was still shining. Plus, I had murdered countless shinobi in that same fashion, not a hint of remorse in my eyes as I did so.
But after Kagami had yelled at me, it was as if the truth had come crashing down on my skull like a meteor or something. For the first time in nearly twenty years, I had begun to feel actual guilt and remorse.
All because of what she had said to me.
But still, my brain had thought, I wasn't lying when I said that our friendship was more than just a ruse. I never even made the connection about how much you looked and acted like Rin until much later. The truth is, I really enjoyed playing with you and watching you smile. It made me feel a lot...younger, maybe as innocent as my childhood self. Really, Kagami, you mean a whole lot to me, and I want to return the favor in a way that you'd approve of.
No matter how much I begged myself to deny it for the past four months, the truth was the truth.
And I wanted to help her come back home, where she belonged. However, I decided to search for her diary, in case she had purposely wanted somebody to find it and inform them about her situation.
Originally, I had doubted this idea, thinking that she had taken the diary with her to write about her adventures while she was away from her home. This thought, however, was scrapped when I spotted the book lying on her desk, a mechanical pencil marking where she had last written an entry inside of it.
Swiftly, I padded over to the desk, opening her diary to the page that had been marked by her pencil. I had the urge to read her past entries from the time after we had first met her, but I decided against it and decided to read her current entry first.
Dear Diary,
I don't understand what's happening to my family right now. Initially, I thought that the Hoshiyume siblings could never get into an argument, based on how close they've been and how much they love one another to death, but I guess that's not the case. In addition, I got into a really big fight with Obito this morning, though I believe that the fight was one-sided. I mean, he didn't even seem to care about what I was saying the whole time! Even Rin and Shisui's words can't help me right now. I feel like I definitely hurt Rin's feelings by telling her to leave me alone, and now she isn't talking to me anymore. Was that really...me? I don't really know anymore. But do I belong in this household? Is Obito supposed to be my best friend? Why does everybody fight nowadays?
It's unfortunate that I can't come into the Pure Land as I wish, since somebody has to summon me there in order to teleport me in my dreams. I haven't even had the chance to inform my siblings about the news that I recently received regarding the scintillating orb, which is the only way we can help the Akatsuki head back to their world. It's been four months — which I can't believe — yet I still can't fathom how the orb works. Besides, I no longer feel like worrying about the orb nor the Akatsuki right now. I believe that I just need to clear my head for a little while...somewhere else.
The place where I want to go still haunts my memories, although I have never really brought it up in a conversation or my thoughts. But since my eighth birthday is drawing near, I can't stop thinking about what had happened a few years ago, the day before I had turned five. When I witnessed the murder, saw the brutally murdered body, and listened to my family argue with the knowledge that I couldn't do a thing about it, the details were almost exactly like the incident. Luckily, they were to a much lesser extent, since none of the siblings were arguing too intensely as if ty were ready to kill each other. But still, that was the first time that I've really seen them have a serious argument with each other. And I just can't stand to bear with it.
I no longer care if anybody finds about what I have written in this diary, as secrets are just never meant to be kept. Perhaps Obito will find this and figure out that I've been talking to the girl he loved and disguised it as somebody else in order to keep him from getting upset. To be honest, I've always wanted him to find out, even after what happened today. Simply put, I didn't want to go against Rin's wishes to keep her identity a secret whenever she summoned me to the Pure Land.
My next destination? Probably on Lakeshore Avenue, where I used to reside until I turned five. Goodbye, diary. You've been a loyal friend to me. Even though I'm not planning to commit suicide or anything similar,
I don't plan on coming back here for a while. It must be a really big hassle for everybody to take care of me, while I've only hidden a dark secret in return. And now, I feel like it's destroying my connection to both my adoptive family and my biological family. I am hoping that visiting that familiar street will purify it and help me start anew with everybody.
Signed,
Kage
Kage? I thought incredulously, before quickly matching the name to Kagami. Was that her old name before she was adopted or something? That's a pretty dark-sounding name that doesn't fit her personality at all...
Suddenly, my single eye widened, reading over the entry again, then again, and then once more, recalling every single detail on the page.
And out of all of the details, my pupils remained fixated on the fact that Kagami had written about going to the Pure Land and meeting Shisui and Rin. While I had no problem with the first person, the last one greatly concerned me.
"Why would it have been such a bad thing if she had told me that she had been talking to her?" I grumbled to nobody in particular...perhaps Shiroyuki the rabbit. "But still...she can't be lying about this...can she?"
But the more I thought about it, the more I decided that Kagami was indeed not lying about meeting up with the girl that I loved in the Pure Land, where all souls went after their physical bodies had died. After all, she was too young to watch Naruto, so she must have gotten all that knowledge about jutsu, chakra, and the information about the curse jutsu that had been inflicted upon me and the Akatsuki from somebody.
I wasn't sure why Rin had insisted that her identity had to be kept a secret. If anything, I wanted to see her again. That was the whole reason why I had gone with Project Tsuki no Me in the first place: to be with her once more, in a peaceful world where nothing would go awry like before.
However, that was not the time to lament about that. Currently, Kagami was on the run. And now, I was completely determined to find her and apologize deeply for my actions, before questioning her about her meetings with Rin.
Closing the diary and putting it in the pocket of my cloak, I raced out of the room and sped downstairs, catching up with the rest of the family. Most of them had already begun to shuffle out the door, realizing that Kagami wasn't anywhere in the building.
"I'm taking the car," Kaiya announced, opening the garage door. "Who wants to come with— aah!"
Deidara immediately rushed to her defense, a sleepy-eyed Akane sitting on his shoulder. "What's wrong? Is there an intruder in the garage or something?"
She shook her head, then pointed to where Kagami had very likely opened the garage door and squeezed her way outside. "For a moment, I thought somebody had broken into our house. But then, I remembered that Kagami-chan was missing, so now I know that she must have lifted up the garage door and ran outside sometime last night."
Naoki looked at his sister with worry-filled eyes, even though I knew well that he had never really been a fan of Kagami's antics. "Onee-chan, what time do you think she left? She could be anywhere by now, since it's two in the morning!"
Suddenly, Yukio pointed towards the back corner of the garage, where all the cardboard boxes had been scattered and tossed around in an untidy manner. "Look! My bike disappeared!"
"It didn't disappear," Kisame quickly corrected him, his eyes also wide, "I think Kagami-chan might have taken that bike to escape! But still, was that your bike?"
"I used to ride it when I was a kid," he confessed, "but I grew too old for it. I don't know if my imouto knows how to ride a bike, though…" Yukio trailed off, his face turning slightly pale.
Kaiya turned towards Zetsu, who stood there with an unclear expression on his face. However, his light side was definitely worried, y the looks of it. "Can you sense Kagami-chan's trail like you did to Tobi back then?" she inquired.
Zetsu simply shook his head. "Unfortunately, we can't. She has no chakra, so we won't be able to track her like we can track normal shinobi. Do you think she left any clues as to where in the world she fled to?"
Sighing internally, I showed the diary to everybody in the garage, bouncing up and down. "Tobi found Kagami-chan's diary in the room! Kagami-chan wrote about a place called Lakeshore Avenue in here!"
All of a sudden, Kaiya's eyes widened to the size of alarm clocks, and she let out a faint yelp. Everybody turned to her immediately, wondering what was wrong.
"Lakeshore Avenue?" panicked Kaiya, sounding both upset and worried as she began to enter the Lexus. "You don't mean...she's planning to go...there?"
Most of the Akatsuki members shot her an odd look, but some of them entered the car and said nothing. "What do you mean, there?" asked Deidara as he made the hand seals to make Akane grow. Sasori and I watched him patiently, planning to get on the bird as well.
"You see…" she started weakly, before opening the garage door and preparing to back out. "Lakeshore Avenue, according to the recorded documents that went with Kagami, was where the Little Alder Orphanage staff found her lying unconscious a couple of years ago…"
I pedaled onward, with no intention of ever looking back.
"Usagi-chan," I whispered to the stuffed rabbit inside of my backpack as I turned past an empty street, "you know where we're heading, right? This was the place where you first met me."
The rabbit did not answer, as I had expected it to. But imagining that whatever Usagi had replied had faded with the wind, I continued to conversation that prevented me from getting too lonely.
"Do you remember Lakeshore Avenue?" I asked it, pedaling harder against the slabs of asphalt. "That's where we used to reside with...okaa-san and otou-san…" Saying their names caused an uneasy feeling to sink into my stomach.
Suddenly, one of Usagi's ears stuck out of my backpack, most likely due to the speed that I was pedaling at. The rubber wheels rumbled over storm drains, before I took a slight left and went onto the sidewalk by ascending onto the nearest curb.
"So you do remember," I sighed, my gaze distant. "I'm glad that you do. I've never been fond of the memories that this place brought to us, but at least I got to meet you. That's got to be a plus, no?"
Returning my attention to the road for a moment, I swerved around a streetlamp, then continued riding right next to a sewage system, which marked the boundaries of the street that I was traveling along. Luckily, it was surrounded by a perimeter of chain fence, so there was not much risk of me falling into the water.
"Sunshine, lollipops, and rainbows…" I began, but trailed off, not exactly in a lighthearted mood as usual. "And let's not forget that song, either. Okaa-san and otou-san used to sing it to us before we fell asleep each night, and that was how we received plenty of good dreams."
Usagi's ear twitched slightly, but once again, this was merely the effect of the wind. Secretly, I was glad that the bunny was not like the Akatsuki and could not really understand too much of the conversation and the situation going on.
"Sometimes," I admitted, "I really do envy you, Usagi-chan. You don't have to brush your teeth every morning and go to school. You don't have to worry about feeling emotions or not being able to do the things that you love. You don't have to put up with family fights or understand love and pain. You don't have to do anything in these horrid situations like this one...that's why you make me feel jealous."
Pedaling slower, I allowed the bike to slow down, mainly because it had been around three hours since I had left the house. I did take breaks every so often, but the more I pedaled, the clearer my mind became.
"Maybe I was too harsh on Obito," I said, but this time, the statement was directed towards myself. "Still, he didn't understand the problem with sacrifices and killing innocent people, so somebody had to tell him about it. I wonder if he's thinking about me, or if he's taken off that mask yet."
The mask often bothered me, since it prevented me from seeing Obito's true feelings. With the mask on, I couldn't detect any emotions in his eyes, see what expressions he made in front of anything, or watch him smile. I had always tended to assume how Obito had been feeling, since I couldn't truly see for myself.
But I couldn't blame Obito for trying to hide himself under a mask for so long. After all, even though it wasn't physically covering my face, I knew well that I was wearing a mask of my own.
He wasn't the only one keeping secrets from the people that he was close to. I too, had hidden away secrets from the Hoshiyume siblings in order to make my life happier. Unfortunately, I had ignored the fact that it would come with a price: this.
Perhaps if I had only told somebody earlier, then it wouldn't have been so hard to handle the situation that was currently going on. Maybe my siblings wouldn't have argued with each other, and they would have smiled a lot more. Now that I thought about it, nobody had really set off a yellow firework for a very long time. Week after week, it had been mixes of purple, silver, and gold, depending on who the person was.
I had been lying to Obito when I had told him about my favorite color and me disliking the color red. In my opinion, red was alright, but I tended to avoid it close to my birthday because of the situation that had involved my parents the day before. I actually did have a favorite color: gray, as in the color of Kaiya's eyes.
Yes, it was a dull color, and didn't really bring much joy to the people that looked at it. However, the dullness was simply an odd disguise for what gray was really made out of: every color of the rainbow combined, plus black and white.
"Usagi-chan," I muttered to the rabbit uneasily as my eyes found the street sign that I had been looking for, "do you think that I made the right decision to come here? Maybe I should have told somebody instead of just letting them find my diary…"
Against my initial will, I had left the diary at home, marking my most recent entry with a pencil. There, I had written about my meetings with Rin and Shisui, as well the fact that I was heading towards Lakeshore Avenue. Oddly enough, I had felt a huge weight had been lifted off of my shoulders when I had made the decision to leave my diary there.
After all no secret could be contained forever, proven to be true by the incident that had involved my entire family, including my biological mother, father, uncle, and little brother.
[FLASHBACK]
"Kage-chan!" my mother called, shouting my name into my room. "Your uncle has come over to play with you again!"
I jumped to my feet, happily bouncing up and down as I clutched my prized toy rabbit in my little arms. "Really? Oji-san came? Where is he, okaa-san?"
It hadn't taken me all that long to learn how to speak full sentences, though it had taken me much longer than other kids my age to finally start speaking at all. It had only been a year since I had finally allowed the words to let loose.
"He's waiting for you downstairs," my mother explained to me. "Now go on and play with him before he leaves. You know that he never likes to wait, right? And if you don't come down, perhaps I'll tell him to return your fifth birthday present to the store to buy himself some soap figurines—"
"Alright, okaa-san!" I exclaimed, skyrocketing out of my bed and rolling onto the floor. "I'm coming!"
My mother giggled, then proceeded to slowly follow me as I sped out of my room, nearly flying right down the entire flight of stairs. Laughing all the way, I slid out onto the floor, looking around for the man that my mother had supposedly said would come and see me.
"Hello?" I called, searching around for my uncle, who I had not seen for nearly a year. "Oji-san, where are you? Do you remember me?"
Finally, I spotted the bearded man sitting in the living room, talking to my father in what seemed to be a deep conversation. I excitedly bounced up and down as soon as I saw them, then dashed towards my uncle. Without warning, I leaped into his lap, embracing him in the process.
"I found you, oji-san!" I exclaimed cheerfully, tugging on the man's shirt. "Okaa-san said that you wanted to play with me!"
To my surprise, the man shook his head. "In time, Kage-chan. However, your father and I are having a small talk. Is it alright if you wait a little while...somewhere else, until we finish having our talk?"
At first, I crossed my arms defiantly and pouted, unsatisfied with his answer. However, in the end, I decided to leave the two be and head back up the stairs. But once I heard my father's voice again, I stopped, right in the middle of the stairs, where nobody could see me because of the surrounding walls.
"What was that for?" I heard my father ask my uncle right after. "You know that she wanted to play with you, Hiyoshi-san. Why did you send Kage-chan away?"
My uncle grunted. "I thought that you were taking our conversation more seriously than that, Kohaku-san. This is just something that she is not old enough to hear about yet, especially when it concerns familial matters that she does not need to be forced to act upon."
His statement made my eyes widen in surprise, and at that moment, I knew that I needed to head upstairs and ask my mother to sing to me or read me a bedtime story, even though it was the middle of the day. But in the end, I just stood there, my ears fixated on trying to decipher their conversation.
"As I was saying," my uncle continued, "why have you decided to stall to tell me that my imouto was pregnant for five months? You know that I consider those to serious family matters, especially if it involves my younger sister."
Yes, my mother was currently five months pregnant. Unfortunately, she had forgotten to tell my uncle about it, even after we had found out that my little sibling was supposed to be a boy. I would have told him, but I had not yet figured out how to use phones.
"We weren't even sure if she was expecting one yet," my father answered lowly. "Being her brother, you should know that Ageha-chan loves sweets and is not the most responsible woman in the world. Even we forget things, sometimes."
I heard my uncle sigh again, pain and anger lacing his tone. "Didn't we go over this already, Kohaku-san? You neglected to inform me of Kage-chan's birth five years ago, but I let that one slide completely. But why did you neglect to tell me that her brother was on the way as well?"
"Well," my father stammered, "we didn't have...telephones with us?"
"Liar!" roared my uncle suddenly, making me shrink back slightly in fear of the volume that he was using. "You ignorant b******, ever since Ageha-chan agreed to be your wife, she hasn't really cared about the ones that have cared for her first! You invited me to your wedding, only to have me pay for a large part of the reception? The only thing you ever paid for was the cake!"
I gulped nervously. Of all the few times that I had gotten a chance to see him, I had never heard my uncle use that kind of harsh and violent language before. Sure, he had been rather stoic and rarely ever smiled, but this was definitely the worst that I had seen him.
"Give Ageha-chan a chance!" my father defended fiercely. "Why don't you see how she feels every day, in constant pain and suffering for having to care for her children! Have you ever bothered to check in on her while she was trying to help poor Kage-chan to finally learn how to speak? Did you ever call her to tell Ageha-chan that you truly loved her and appreciated the fact that you were her older brother?"
"Shut up!" he thundered, and I heard my father yelp slightly. "This is all your fault, you son of a b****! Because of you, my imouto has paid no attention to her family that had always been behind her, and instead devoted all of her attention to a b******!"
"But that's no reason to pin the blame on our children!" my father countered harshly, making me let out a small but luckily inaudible gasp. "What has Kage-chan ever done to you that you would simply shun her, especially on the day before her fifth birthday?"
He responded with an arrogant snort. "Why else do you think that I hate Kage?" Okay, that brought my attention. Hate me? Why would my uncle hate me of all things, especially since it sounded as if his hatred was more directed towards my father instead? "She's the result of Ageha-chan spending way too much time with you, that's all. Even though she bears a striking resemblance to her okaa-san, all I can see whenever I look at her is your filthy face grinning at me like you had just sabotaged my life. Which you did."
"I did not sabotage your life!" my father roared back. "Ageha-chan is happy, and that's all that matters! And that's no reason to hate my daughter, of all things! Would you do the same if you had a daughter that happened to look like me as well?"
"That's not the point!" my uncle retorted. "I should have never given you my blessing to marry my sister, you heartless *******! Ever since she's married you, she hasn't bothered to give her family a call to tell them that she loved them! Do you know how many hours I waited by the phone, just to hear her voice again? I had other things to worry about than traveling to come and see her, since I don't even live in America!"
"Then move here!" my father growled. "Or if you had the nerve to sit by the phone at all, call her! It's not like it costs all too much to make one simple long-distance phone call, anyway!"
"I said, shut up!" my uncle thundered, and seconds later, I heard a punching noise. Growing extremely worried, I raced back downstairs as quick as a wink, only to see my uncle holding my father in a chokehold around his neck. To my horror, my father's face was turning blue, but I didn't understand what was going on. However, I could tell that it was definitely something very awful.
"Oji-san!" I cried desperately, tears welling up in my eyes. "Stop it!"
Suddenly, my uncle dropped my father, his expression softening slightly. My father gasped for air on the ground, just as my mother came down as well to see what in the world was going on.
"Kohaku-kun!" my mother said to my father, panic laced in her voice. Her teeth chattering, she turned to her older brother. "Nii-san? What have you done to my husband?"
Immediately after she had said that, his gaze returned to an intimidating glare. "Ageha-chan…" he growled lowly at her, almost like a bulldog. "Have you realized...how long I've waited to hear you call me by that again? It's been...what? Six years since you last referred to me as your brother?"
"Don't start this conversation here, Hiyoshi-kun," my mother scolded him. "My daughter is present. And before I forget, she is way too young to be hearing those words."
He scowled at her, but shook his head, before proceeding to storm out of the house in a huff. But before he completely left the building, he growled one last message that seemed to be directed to both of my parents.
"On the front porch. Tonight, while your daughter is asleep."
And with that, he left, a feeling of paranoia curled up inside of my veins. Even my father, whom I had considered to have feared absolutely nothing, was cowering and hugging my mother in fear. For all the times I had met up with him, I hadn't realized that he had always felt that way towards my father.
The hours passed, but the house was mostly quiet, as if my uncle was still there in spirit, ready to dive upon the soul that dared to speak up. Silence hung in the air like jungle vines, even around me, who was usually the noisiest person in the house. For once, I didn't ask anything of my parents, and in return, they asked nothing of me. It was as if my uncle had cast a spell on the house.
To pass the time, I simply played with sets of blocks as well as my stuffed rabbit, Usagi. The rabbit had been a gift from my parents when I had turned three years old, and it had easily become my best friend, despite not talking at all. Maybe I liked it because it always went with what I wanted and because it never asked much of me, other than to love it.
Finally, bedtime came, along with a soft yawn that had built up within me over the duration of silence. But when my mother and father tucked me into bed as usual, the silence finally broke.
"Do you want us to sing to you, Kage-chan?" asked my mother, draping a down comforter over me. I had strongly disliked the silence, so I quickly nodded and clapped my hands in delight, giggling playfully like the toddler I was.
"Alright," my father agreed, "we'll sing your favorite song. Do you remember how it goes, Kage-chan?"
"I do, otou-san!" I exclaimed, but much softer because it was time for bed. Quietly, I whispered the first verse of the song to them."Sunshine, lollipops, and rainbows, everything that's wonderful is what I feel when we're together!"
My parents clapped, before both of them joined in, causing me to stop singing. "Brighter than a lucky penny, when you're near the rain just disappears, dear and I feel so fine...just to know that you are mine! My life is sunshine, lollipops, and rainbows, that's how this refrain goes, come on, join in, everybody!"
Of course, this was my cue to rejoin the chorus of the song, as I had always done whenever they had sung the third verse. "Sunshine, lollipops, and rainbows, everything that's wonderful is sure to come your way...when you're in love to stay!"
"Goodnight, Kage-chan," my mother said, kissing my cheek. "We love you. Now go to sleep, and don't worry about a thing that oji-san said today, alright? Sweet dreams, my little angel."
With that, they both left, smiles etching their faces as they shut the door behind them, enveloping me in darkness. I didn't mind the darkness, unlike most other children my age. Perhaps that was why my parents had decided to name me Kage, but I hadn't bothered to ask them why.
And I would never get to.
No matter how much I tried to get sleep, I got nothing for about two hours, lying in bed and staring at the ceiling, eyes wide open. I squeezed Usagi tightly for comfort, and even though I was sure that I was burning up from being under the blanket for too long, I shivered in fear.
Two hours into my quest for sleep, I heard a loud bang coming from outside of the house.
My eyes flew wide open as I jumped out of my bed, clutching my stuffed rabbit tightly. I had the urge to look out the window and try to figure out what the sound was, but decided against it, running out of my bedroom instead.
That was a weird sound, I thought to myself as I hurried down the stairs. I've never heard it before...maybe I did once when my father had been watching television, but still…
A panicked expression spreading onto my face, I ran into the living room, where my father and uncle had been having a heated argument just hours earlier. Suddenly, I caught sight of light flooding inside the room through the hallway that led to the garage, so I decided to peek inside of the hallway.
To my surprise, the door to the garage was wide open. And so was the garage door itself.
Did somebody break in?
Chills reverberating up and down my spine, I tiptoed towards the garage in curiosity, still holding onto Usagi as tightly as possible. It was a good thing that stuffed rabbits couldn't suffocate, because that was just how tightly I held onto it.
And that's when I spotted my uncle and my mother right at the front porch, where he had said that they were going to talk. My uncle was holding some sort of weapon in his hands that I had never seen before, but I could tell that it was a weapon because my mother was staring at it with fear in her eyes. She knelt beside my father, who was lying down in a pool of dark red liquid, for some reason.
"You…" she whispered weakly, and I caught the flow of teardrops streaming out of her eyes. "Why...why did you shoot him?"
"That b****** deserved it!" my uncle roared, causing me to gasp slightly at his harsh tone. "Don't you remember anything from the conversation earlier? Thanks to him, you haven't cared one bit about me or your biological family! If anything, you should be thanking me, Ageha-chan!"
My mother narrowed her eyes at him, but this was hard to tell, as she was shaking violently as she placed a hand on my father's still back. "Don't call me Ageha-chan anymore, you monster! If you think about it, was doing this really necessary?"
I took a few steps back as my uncle scowled again, causing my mother to jump away in total fear. Suddenly, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a match, and with fright, I watched as he lit one end on fire and threw it into the garage. "It was all too necessary! If you had paid more attention to me and your original family, then maybe he didn't have to die!"
Die?
That was a word that I was not familiar with at all. Perhaps it was a word for how my father was just lying there, still as a plank of wood and not breathing.
"Is this why you waited until we put Kage-chan to bed?" she screamed at her brother, quickly reaching behind a box in the garage and pointing the same weapon at my uncle. "To kill her and her otou-san, who had never intended to harm you at all? What has gotten into you, Hiyoshi?"
"Shut up, you f****** w****!" he thundered at her, pointing the weapon at her chest. "Go to hell, where you belong!"
The moment I decided to go back to my room and hide, I heard a very loud bang, followed by another shortly after.
Instinctively, I spun around, only to spot all three adults lying there, covered in the same red liquid. Panicking, I slipped on the closest pair of shoes and ran towards them to try to help them out. Usagi was still clutched in my grasp as I sprinted towards my family.
My uncle's eyes were closed, and so were my father's. I grabbed my father's hand, only to drop it, since it was ice cold.
"Otou-san?" I whispered to them. "Okaa-san? Oji-san? What happened?"
Suddenly, my mother's eyes fluttered open, and she slowly gave me a look of surprise. The strange red liquid was pouring out of her. "Kage-chan...why...why did you come here?"
"I couldn't sleep, okaa-san," I explained to her, tears making their way into my eyes, even though I had no idea what had just happened. "I heard a loud bang, and I was wondering…" I trailed off, as my mother closed her eyes again.
"Never forget me, Kage-chan," she whispered. "Or your otou-san. Sunshine, lollipops, and rainbows...always think of us when you sing that song from now on…"
"Why are you speaking like that, okaa-san?" I inquired, reaching down to touch her face. When she didn't reply, I nudged her head. "Okaa-san? Hello? Did you fall asleep? Hello, okaa-san?"
I bounded over to my father next, tapping his shoulder lightly. "Hey otou-san, wake up. You'll get sick from staying out here. Remember how you said that to me, otou-san? Wake up."
But just like my mother, he did not respond. So instead, I knelt next to my uncle, who did not seem to be breathing.
"Oji-san?" I asked him, staring at the strange weapon in his hand. "Why did you yell at otou-san and okaa-san? Why did you use those strange words? Are you asleep as well?"
Suddenly, with a jolt, I remembered the match that my uncle had thrown into the garage, and turned around. Unfortunately, it was already too late, for the fire had already begun to spread into the house. The flames licked at every inch of the wall, surrounding the door back into the house.
I didn't need anybody to tell me that I wouldn't be able to go back into my room.
Screaming, I ran away from the house, leaving my parents and uncle lying there. With nothing but my pajamas, the shoes that I had grabbed, and Usagi, I fled the area, just as the flames began consuming the bottom part of the house. Although I knew about what to do whenever I saw a fire, I had not yet known the truth about what had gone down on the front porch.
My family had just erased each other from existence.
Even more, my uncle had tried to kill me as well by setting the house on fire.
As I sprinted out into the street, the full moon shone in the center of the black sky, red as the fire and the liquid that had poured out of the bodies of my parents and my uncle. It cast a sinister glare upon the land, before slowly fading back into a silver color.
The only other thing that I could recall before passing out that night was the fact that I was five years old.
[END FLASHBACK]
Of course, I had not known that my parents and uncle had been lying there, dead, while I had been shaking them and begging for them to wake up.
And the whole thing about my mother being pregnant with my baby brother...we hadn't been making that up. It was just that it hurt too much to tell anybody that I even had a little brother.
I had never known what had become of Lakeshore Avenue since the entire incident, as I had felt too scared to come back there. The incident was also the whole reason why a large part of me dreaded my birthday, as well as the color red. I wasn't too scared of fire anymore, since the whole fireworks tradition had helped me cope with it.
After the entire incident, I had lived homeless for a while, though the people that passed by me often gave me food and water. However, it wasn't until about a month later that Little Alder Orphanage had taken me in.
But on the other hand, it had taken me much longer to fully accept the fact that my entire family had been wiped from the face of the earth in just that one instant, at each other's hands. I refused to imagine the fact that my uncle had fired a gun at my father, right before he and my mother had killed each other.
Siblings...killing each other… I just couldn't take it.
The only thing that had been harder for me to digest was the fact that my uncle had planned to kill me that night as well, since everybody had thought that I was sleeping in my bed. Luckily — or not, as I simply couldn't decide — I had woken up in time to witness all three murders, right before instinctively escaping the house with Usagi as it had been burned to the ground.
Currently, I stood in front of the remains of the house, which had not yet been rebuilt. In fact, I believed that the people on Lakeshore Avenue were intending to keep it that way, since the sprinklers were on, watering the ivy tendrils that were snaking up the sides of the house. It reminded me a lot of Zetsu and Kakuzu, but I simply shook my head, making the thought vanish.
The remains wood looked as if they had been definitely eaten away, and ranged from light gray to scorched black in color. Much of the ground around it was still slightly charred, though grass and other plants had begun to grow and surround the place. All the surrounding streetlights were rather dark, barely shining any light. In fact, the brightest light there was coming from my bicycle light. Nearby, all the other houses had small burn marks on their sides, likely abandoned after the fire had started.
It was as if nothing had happened there three years ago.
I got off the bike with Usagi, gently pushing the rabbit's fuzzy ear back inside of the backpack as I approached the house. The area still smelled faintly of smoke, even though it had been a while. Stepping onto the pavement of what used to be our front porch, I got onto my knees and kowtowed to the house.
In all honesty, I wasn't part of a religion. I had refrained from becoming part of one because I knew of all the conflicting views, similar to how Hidan and Yukio argued about Alfalfa and Jashin. But still, I thought that it was a polite gesture, especially if I was looking at the spot where my entire family had perished.
Silence hung in the air, as if the spell my uncle had seemingly cast upon the house was still there. I wanted to offer something to them, but in my haste and escape, I had forgotten to pick flowers or at least take something with me.
After about ten minutes of staying there, my ears began to pick up a faint sound...no, two. And the longer I stayed there, the closer they seemed to get. However, it wasn't until seconds later did I realize that the sounds were coming from objects that were probably meant for tracking me.
I wasn't sure if this theory was correct, but I quickly got back onto the bike, my eyes widening. It was too soon!
Without thinking, I rode off towards the direction opposite of where the sounds were coming from, even though that was right towards the part of Lakeshore Avenue that I had never been to. I wasn't sure where it would lead me, but I took it anyway.
Approximately thirty seconds later, my bike light completely burned out.
For the next couple of minutes, I struggled to see where I was going, since the dim streetlights did not help me see at all. I pedaled blindly, swerving around any random shadows that seemed to stand in my way.
Just avoid any trees that you can see, I thought to myself. And keep away from the sounds.
No matter how fast I pedaled, the noises seemed to be getting closer. However, I ended up making the near-fatal mistake of pedaling at what could have been considered my maximum velocity.
I traveled so fast, I couldn't even stop myself after I had sped off of that slope.
Suddenly, I found myself plummeting towards the ground, which had somehow disappeared from beneath me and had sunk lower than I had imagined. I had the urge to scream, but couldn't, as the sound was stuck inside of my throat.
The last thing that I remembered before sinking into unconsciousness was the sound of my body hitting the ground with a very sickening thud, as well as the flapping of wings and the sight of three shadows. As my eyes began to flutter shut, I found myself staring into the face of a very familiar one, just as I blacked out.
Obito.
A/N: Gosh darn it...I hate myself for torturing Kagami-chan and writing this. But still, it had to be done...
No, Kagami-chan didn't try to commit suicide. She couldn't see where she was going and accidentally rode off a cliff that she was unable to spot. And the bird at the end was Akane, to clear anything up.
Question: Favorite cereal?
See you in the next installment, everybody! And thank you all so much for 11,800 reads!
— Tenshi —
